Djeoromitxi

The Djeoromitxí are an indigenous tribe that generally lived in the southern portion of the Brazilian state of Rondônia. They speak a language pertaining to the Jabuti family, which is similar to that spoken by the Arikapú and is part of the Macro-Jê family. The first contacts with white Brazilians happened in the early 20th century.

According to traditional history, the Djeoromitxí lived near the Rio Branco. Like other groups in southern Rondônia, these people were displaced and decimated after the first contacts with whites. Today most of them live in the Indigenous Land of Rio Guaporé. There were 187 individuals according to Funasa in 2009.

Name

The name Djeoromitxí is not used by Brazilians and the origin isn't clear. It may originally be a clan name that denotes a certain palm tree (Maldi 1991).

These people are generally known to Westerners with the name Jabutí, which is a Tupi loanword in Brazilian Portuguese which means "tortoise". The name is not used by these natives. The Makuráp people called them with the name "txawiti", which means "other (unknown or wild) Indians". It is possible that Westerners interpreted the word as Jabutí.

In some sources the names Kipiu and Quipiú are used to refer to the Djeoromitxí. These names are not recognized by the present day Arikapú and Djeoromitxí peoples.

Languages

Until recent times the languages spoken by the Arikapú and the Djeoromitxí were not documented. They have been classified as belonging to the Jabutí language family.

The Jabutí languages are different from the other languages of the Guaporé region. They are considered a small isolated family. The Jabutí languages are similar to each other but not identical. With the Arikapú and Djeoromitxí being close neighbors, it is possible that their languages have evolved from a common ancestral way of speech in the same region. A comparison of the two languages suggests that the ancestors of these people might have come from the east 2000 years ago to settle in these lands; because of their region of origin, they spoke a Macro-Jê language. Most of the loanwords in Arikapú are from Makuráp, which is used for intertribal contacts in the region, and was particularly used during the rubber boom era.

Their language is now at risk of extinction, as there are only two elderly speakers and it wasn't taught to any children. One of them lives in the Rio Branco Indigenous Land and the other lives in the Guaporé Indigenous Land.

Many of the ethnic Arikapú in the Rio Branco land speak Tuparí in addition to Portuguese, while in the Guaporé land they speak Makuráp.

External links

• Djeoromitxi on socioambiental.org